The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) returns to its resident home, the Southbank Centre, this week to begin recording a new series of concerts which will be available for global audiences to watch on Marquee TV later this month. Following a successful partnership last autumn, the Orchestra is excited to continue offering its concerts for free on Marquee TV for the first seven days to enable everyone to access its performances. These concerts will be streamed every Wednesday evening at 8pm (UK) from 24 March through to 9 June.
Cristina Rocca, Artistic Director of the LPO, said: ‘It is wonderful to see the Orchestra back on stage and, thanks to our successful streaming partnership with Marquee TV, to be able to share live music with an international audience. The joy of making music together again will be clear for all to see across the series.’
The LPO’s spring season opens in the Queen Elizabeth Hall with Haydn’s Symphony No. 49 (La Passione) and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 with [pictured] conductor Enrique Mazzola (streamed 24 March). Mazzola joins the LPO for a second concert featuring Missy Mazzoli’s These Worlds In Us alongside Sibelius’s Finlandia and Symphony No. 1 (streamed 31 March). Ben Gernon conducts Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade for Orchestra alongside works by Haydn and Mendelssohn (streamed 7 April).
For its first concert back in the Royal Festival Hall this year, the Orchestra is joined by Steven Isserlis and Sir Mark Elder to perform Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in a programme that also includes Dvořák’s The Wild Dove and Janáček’s Jealousy (streamed 14 April). Denis Kozhukhin performs Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in a concert conducted by Robin Ticciati (streamed 21 April). Bringing the first set of six concerts to a close is Romanian pianist Alexandra Dariescu who performs Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G in a programme conducted by Fabien Gabel that also includes Ravel’s Mother Goose suite and Offenbach’s Gaîté Parisienne ballet suite (streamed 28 April).
Future concerts this season are being finalised, and include performances with the LPO’s titled conductors Karina Canellakis and Vladimir Jurowski, who conducts his final concerts at the Royal Festival Hall before stepping into the Conductor Emeritus role. From May the Orchestra is looking forward to its summer residency at Glyndebourne.
The Orchestra is delighted to be continuing its partnership with Marquee TV, following the success of their collaboration in the autumn which saw over 70,000 households view the LPO’s 13 concerts, with 35% of audiences being in the 18-34 age group. The LPO is also continuing its partnership with Intersection (formerly Silent Studios), who showcased their imaginative filming techniques in the autumn season. Intersection will work with the LPO’s audio recording partners K&A Productions, who will provide the sound.
The Orchestra continued to offer lively online music-making sessions to connect with groups who have been particularly isolated during this period, including disabled adults, young people with SEND and their families.
Over the lockdown period the LPO has sustained its relationship with UK and international audiences through ‘LPOnline’, reaching hundreds of thousands of people. From initial individual player performances recorded at home, to online engagement initiatives such as its wellbeing strand Lean In and Listen, the Orchestra progressed over time to larger-scale split-screen performances. In late June it brought together its musicians to play together in small chamber groups for the LPO Summer Sessions from Henry Wood Hall, and in August played to audiences with small-scale outdoor performances at Glyndebourne and indoors at Snape Maltings. The Autumn 2020 season saw the Orchestra reach tens of thousands of people around the globe with its In the Stream of Life series of 13 concerts.